Preparation for Sale - Part 3
There are a few other things to remember when preparing your home for sale. Some are old, some are relatively new. One of the oldest and time tested is "curb appeal".
The first impression a prospective buyer gets of your property is when they drive up. If the lawn is brown and the front yard and driveway are full of trash or toys or other distractions, that first impression can be a negative one. It might not prevent the buyer from buying your home, but even if they do buy, it can certainly cost you money - more money than it would cost to make the house more appealing from the street.
A couple of common sense reminders are in order here:
- Along with the inside of your house, remove the clutter from the outside, particularly in the front. Pick up the kids toys, the ratty lawn furniture, old lawn-mowers, broken gnomes, dog bones, bicycles, tricycles, tractor tires, auto parts, etc. Cars up on jacks, broken trellises, tire swings full of water and mosquitoes, --well, you get the idea.
- Mow the lawn regularly, remove dead plantings, spruce up the paint as necessary, make the front entry clean and accessible, trim back overwhelming shrubs, trees and bushes, put the cars in the garage. Remember, we're selling a dream here!
If you really can't see anything wrong with the way your property looks, then you can consider hiring a "home stager". This is exactly what it sounds like. A stager is a person trained to come into your home and help you "stage" it to be most appealing to a prospective buyer. It may mean some paint, some furniture removal, some cleaning, some mowing, whatever the stager thinks will enhance the homes appealing points and remove attention from it's deficits. Stager's cost money, but they do all the work and many times, you will get back in increased sale price way more than you paid the stager. One word of caution - like hiring any other consultant - if you're not going to do what the stager says - don't waste your money!
But, even after all of the preparations mentioned here and in the last couple of entries, still - and always - the most important preparation is setting the proper price. If you prepare the home in all of the ways listed in this blog and even more and the price is too high - guess what - it won't sell.
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